


A Good Team

by speccygeekgrrl



Category: White Collar (TV 2009)
Genre: Cooking, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:42:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27455155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speccygeekgrrl/pseuds/speccygeekgrrl
Summary: Mozzie is always happy to be tasked with keeping Elizabeth busy. Helping her prepare a meal is a particularly delightful way to make sure she stays home and safe until the Suit and Neal are done with their scheme for the day.
Relationships: Elizabeth Burke & Mozzie (White Collar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	A Good Team

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt table: White Collar, taste, cooking together, squid.
> 
> I just love Mozzie and El so much. So much.

Mozzie didn't like how often he was getting roped into Neal and the Suit's schemes (the Suit wouldn't use the word schemes, but that was what they were, even if he didn't want to admit it), but he had absolutely no problem with it when those schemes left him tasked with keeping an eye on Mrs. Suit.

Elizabeth was a _delight_. Elegant, beautiful, razor sharp, didn't miss a trick. Mozzie wondered more than once how to get her in on one of _his_ schemes. She'd make a hell of a partner for a badger game. Of course, her husband would _hate_ it, and there was no chance at all that she wouldn't tell him. But it was still a fun thought lurking in the back of his mind whenever he and Elizabeth sat on her couch sipping wine and talking about conspiracy theories he knew were true. 

This time when he showed up at the Burkes' door with a mellow, fruity Bobal and a set amount of time spanning a few hours to keep Elizabeth distracted and in the house, he found her frowning: not at him, she managed a smile to see him, but when she let him in, the corners of her lips were pulling distinctly downward as she went to grab a pair of wine glasses.

"What's wrong, El?" Mozzie tried his best to not sound like he was fishing for information, because he was genuinely concerned about her, and he hadn't been told to get anything out of her while he was there, this time. 

Elizabeth sighed. "Peter just let me know he won't be home for dinner, maybe won't be home until late tonight. I was planning something special for dinner, and I don't know if it'll still be good tomorrow..."

"What were you planning?"

"Braised squid with red wine and fennel," she said, and popped the cork on the bottle he'd brought.

Mozzie pressed a hand to his chest. "It would be a _real_ shame to let that go to waste."

"Mm. I wonder if Peter didn't make up an excuse to get out of it. I told him, it wouldn't be anything like calamari cooked this way, but he's suspicious of anything with tentacles now after he got food poisoning once..." She handed him a glass and sat next to him with her own.

"Well, yeah, do you know how smart those things are? Squids pull heists," Mozzie said.

"I think you're thinking of octopuses," El said with a little smile.

"Whichever, something with eight arms is definitely going to be the next species to rule the earth once humans are out of the picture. But they taste delicious."

Elizabeth put her glass down on the coffee table and studied him for a moment before asking, "Would you like to have dinner with me tonight, Mozzie?"

"I would be _genuinely_ delighted," he said immediately. "Do you need a sous-chef?"

"I do, in fact."

"I am at your disposal. Just tell me what you'd like me to do."

Thirty minutes later, Nina was on the sound system, Satchmo was guarding the front door like the very good boy he was, and Mozzie was trying to impress El with the knife tricks he'd picked up during his many stints posing as a caterer or other mostly-unnoticed food preparation role, usually to prep an exit route through a kitchen, trying very hard not to reveal the illegal things he'd been doing when he learned the legitimate kitchen skills. Not that dicing was hard, but he liked to think that he did it with style.

By the time they sat down to eat the tender simmered squid with a good crusty bread for the sauce, the frown was nowhere to be found on El's face, replaced with beautiful good humor and, with the first bite, the rapturous expression of a person tasting something exquisite. 

"The Suit doesn't know what he's missing," Mozzie said, fully aware of just what the Suit was doing that made him miss the meal, but confident in Neal's ability to get them both out of a tight spot if things went sideways. "This is fabulous, you're an amazing cook."

"Thank you, Mozzie," El said, and held her wine glass out. "We make a good team."

"I agree," Mozzie said fervently, and tapped his glass to hers, wishing not for the first or the last time that he could find out how they'd be as a team on _his_ sort of thing.


End file.
